Witcher 3 - 50 Hours of Playing Time or More?

March 2nd, 2013, 19:12

Originally Posted by spiraling69
I am a little dissapointed that Witcha 3 is expected to be a 50 hour rpg though. I read somewhere that it's going to be 20% larger than Skyrim, so 50 hours just doesn't seem right.

According to info in the More Witcher 3 Details thread itīs 50 hours for main quest and 50 hours for side quests.
Besides the fact that these estimations are always nebulous, one thing to consider is that in Skyrim a huge portion of playtime consists of dungeoneering, while talking to characters and engaging in overland questing takes relatively smaller portion of play time when compared to games like Gothics or previous Witchers.
Considering in The Witcher 3 the narrative aspect is supposed not to be side lined by the gameīs open world-ness, I think itīs quite reasonable to expect dungeon crawling wonīt be as prominent as in Skyrim.
In that light Iīd say estimated 100 hours of quest content is more than enough and lines up well with the games like Fallout: New Vegas or Gothic 3.
Anyway, just speculating .

The QTEs of Witcher 2 were a perfect example of how things can be blown out of proportion and get ridiculously melodramatic on the Internet. Outside the prologue there were what 4 QTEs? Cry me a river.

—

I'd just like to interject here and point out that I'm not going to say anything to spoil the mood, Chief. I'll just float here and watch. Don't mind me, just sitting here, floating and watching, that's me.

Originally Posted by Kostaz
The QTEs of Witcher 2 were a perfect example of how things can be blown out of proportion and get ridiculously melodramatic on the Internet. Outside the prologue there were what 4 QTEs? Cry me a river.

I agree. The only QTEs in TW2 that were annoying enough for me to even remember them were during the battle against the Kraken. I was far more annoyed by the QTE traps in Risen 2.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I agree. The only QTEs in TW2 that were annoying enough for me to even remember them were during the battle against the Kraken. I was far more annoyed by the QTE traps in Risen 2.

You mean the traps that seem to appear based on some incredible sensor technology that detects exactly when you have just moved your hand away from the spacebar to scratch your nose?

Originally Posted by Kostaz
The QTEs of Witcher 2 were a perfect example of how things can be blown out of proportion and get ridiculously melodramatic on the Internet. Outside the prologue there were what 4 QTEs? Cry me a river.

I never quite got all the complaints about QTEs in W2 either. Like others have mentioned before, there were so few of them that I barely noticed. Besides, after a fashion, QTEs are the reminiscence of the combat system in W1, which pretty much was one huge QTE fest; clicking on rhythm, c'mon…

By doing a few QTEs you are clicking some, while playing other parts of the game, you are clicking some more, what's the difference? Quitting W2 because of QTEs at the Chapter1 boss is kicking yourself in a the nuts, you are missing out on one hellova game imho. The Kraken does represent a huge difficulty spike, I agree, but I do not think it has much to do with them QTEs. I had to switch down to Medium there as well, no shame about it.

Same goes for Risen 2 traps really, I never minded them, and there are about 4 tribal traps and 5 dungeon traps altogether, yeez.
And both of these are games where you can save every bloody second if so you desire. It's not like Dark Souls where you can scew up much worse without precious saves. I think this whole thing is waaaaaay blown out of proportion.

That said, 50 hours does not sound much, which may or may not be a problem, and could be totally just someone's estimate at this point. Devs may not be sure about the playtime yet, so I wouldn't give much credit to it now.

Many, like me, do not play CRPG for their fast twitch skills. It's just not the type of CRPG I like to play - tell me before hand that they are in there and I wont buy the game. There are plenty of (most?) console RPGs that deal with that type of RPG gaming and I'm okay with it that they exist, but I don't buy them or play them.

Really the only thing to get is that some of us just don't like it. It's a player's choice really. Simple.

Originally Posted by Soulbane
Same goes for Risen 2 traps really, I never minded them, and there are about 4 tribal traps and 5 dungeon traps altogether, yeez..

They were examples of poorly done QTEs. That's it; nobody here is saying they quit over them or they ruined the game only that they were bad. And actually their ridiculous infrequency is part of the reason they felt so out of place and seemed to come out of nowhere. So calm down.

I'm pretty sure there were more than 4 of those tribal traps in Risen 2. My problem was that, if you didn't know about their locations beforehand, they would pretty much get you every time. At least that's how it was for me on Hard difficulty.

I wouldn't have a problem with them if they just did a certain amount of damage, but the instant death thing was utter crap.

It doesn't change my opinion much about Risen 2. I still enjoyed it a lot, and I think it's an underrated game. I hope Piranha Bytes is done with QTEs though.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I'm pretty sure there were more than 4 of those tribal traps in Risen 2. My problem was that, if you didn't know about their locations beforehand, they would pretty much get you every time. At least that's how it was for me on Hard difficulty.

It's the same on all difficulties.
Unless you know exactly where those are, you don't have enough time to press space to avoid them = reload the game for no reason at all = bad design.

I don't consider my reflexes to be anything but mediocre, but I didn't die once after the first time in Risen2, it came natural to hit space and I think you get plenty of time for that. *shrug*

It does kinda feel odd though, but traps should be there, and I don't know how to implement them better. I'm not saying it's good design, but I can't accept it's that bad either.

@Dajjer: I understand, and it's always a bummer to expect something of a game and get something else. In this case, however, I urge you to put aside your dislike of that little aspect of the game and give it another shot. Really, you would do yourself a great favor, brother. Also, I'm pretty sure people could read about QTEs being in W2 before release. At least I remember I knew about them, and when I got there I thought "wow, these are the dreaded QTEs? There were, like, five times. I don't get it". With this analogy however, you could say "why include them at all?" and you'd be totally right.

@jhwisner: I'm totally calm, don't get me wrong. And Dajjer did say he quit after the Kayran and because of QTEs, unless I misread something. Plus I read and heard others say this elsewhere.

@JDR13: Yea, maybe a few more, there's two on Tacarigua, and 1 or 2 on half the islands. All I'm saying I never found them that annoying, but that's totally objective.

Originally Posted by Soulbane
@jhwisner: I'm totally calm, don't get me wrong. And Dajjer did say he quit after the Kayran and because of QTEs, unless I misread something. Plus I read and heard others say this elsewhere.

Yeah I meant that with regard to the traps in Risen 2 - they're better and purer examples of bad QTEs.. The Kayran is not nearly as bad of a QTE use on its own - its the (at launch at least) unskippable cutscene leading up to the fight from the nearest possible save that magnified that one. In that case, the problem was somewhat less the QTE being unforgiving or poorly designed as it was that you had to repeat the cutscene and the walk down to the pit area each time you reloaded. While not incredibly long, it was long enough and repetitive enough that I could easily see someone getting into a spiral of frustration - getting angrier and less likely to pull off the QTEs after each failed attempt to the point where continuing would not be productive.

For that example then I do think it is certainly possible to understand why someone would sour towards the game and stop playing. It also makes perfect sense that the thing they'd remember as the problem was the QTE that initially caused them to have to repeat that cutscene over and over. Still I'd call that someone quitting over a scene that combined an abitrarily unskippable narrative sequence and unfortunate save system implementation exposed by a QTE rather than just quitting because the QTE got in the way. I wouldn't consider it to be extreme overreaction to put the game down over that scene, but it is probably insufficient to say it was just because the QTE was annoying - it was also the worst place in the entire game to end up being annoyed by a QTE.

Yeah I quite Witcher 2 due to the Kraken. In real life I have very decent reflexes, perhaps better than most, but they have never transferred into the gaming realm. There have been tutorials I have not been able to get out of due to the need for some reflex actions. So it is what it is. As I said previously, I regularly check around to see if the developers came up with some kind of Kraken workaround, when they do then I will resume the game.

Originally Posted by Dajjer
Yeah I quite Witcher 2 due to the Kraken. In real life I have very decent reflexes, perhaps better than most, but they have never transferred into the gaming realm. There have been tutorials I have not been able to get out of due to the need for some reflex actions. So it is what it is. As I said previously, I regularly check around to see if the developers came up with some kind of Kraken workaround, when they do then I will resume the game.

Regardless, I am now greatly looking forward to Witcher 2

Well if its the thing keeping you from trying out the rest of the game, the closest thing to a bypass is this:

Someone else's save game simply is not happening. That's why I check the developers forums every once in a while for a work around. Maybe in a FPS or adventure game it's okay to pick up a someones save game but in an RPG where you have made all these specific upgrades to your character. Naaaaaaaaaaa.

I probably have a queue of maybe 25 games on steam and 10 games on GOG and about 5 on the rest. Let alone all the DVDs I have that are un-opened and un -played. If a game aint working then its time to move on. Besides I am normally a completest and probably got in about 30+ hours of Witcher 2 even though it was in Chaper 1. So I never felt ripped off, just forewarned.